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XP wont boot - blank screen

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Name: johnhp
Date: September 29, 2008 at 21:32:43 Pacific
OS: XP SP2
CPU/Ram: 3800 dual core / 2gb
Product: Asus MB
Comment:

MY C drive cant get past the bios, but if I swop the drive in Bios then no problem. I cant even get recovery console to boot or XP setup or bootable image - CD is the 1st drive in bios - any ideas?



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Response Number 1
Name: Ed in Texas.
Date: September 29, 2008 at 23:10:37 Pacific
Reply:

johnhp,"CD is the 1st drive in bios" shouldn't it be your 'C' drive?
HTH.
Ed in Texas.


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Response Number 2
Name: OtheHill
Date: September 30, 2008 at 06:44:36 Pacific
Reply:

john, you post is confusing. "but if I swop the drive in Bios then no problem".

What exactly does that mean?


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Response Number 3
Name: johnhp
Date: September 30, 2008 at 10:17:53 Pacific
Reply:

CD has been setup as 1st drive so that I can bootup from XP Setup etc not that it serves any purpose with this Maxtor drive which worked perfectly till Sunday night.
I have another HD (Hitachi) and temporarily I am using that as my boot drive (to get to the internet, documents, outlook etc etc) until I get the Maxtor sorted out - which looks impossible as no optical media is working with the Maxtor


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Response Number 4
Name: OtheHill
Date: September 30, 2008 at 10:35:23 Pacific
Reply:

Watch the start up screens while the Maxtor is connected to see if it is properly identified by model and capacity.

What happens when you try to boot to the WinXP CD with the Maxtor connected? Do you see a screen to hit any key to boot to CD?


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Response Number 5
Name: johnhp
Date: September 30, 2008 at 15:04:11 Pacific
Reply:

I get as far as 'Setup is inspecting your computers hardware configuration' and then nothing.


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Response Number 6
Name: OtheHill
Date: September 30, 2008 at 15:38:39 Pacific
Reply:

Disconnect ALL peripheral hardware like printers, external or flash drives.


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Response Number 7
Name: johnhp
Date: October 1, 2008 at 14:10:10 Pacific
Reply:

Yes, that is a good suggestion, I have noticed that a plugged in USB flash drive has prevented a hard drive from completed boot up process, but unfortunately I had already tried that in this situation. Anyway as I had access via another drive, I have transferred the valuable files and repartioned etc c/o 'Acronis add new drive' which is related to Maxblast which gave me a very clean HD to reinstall XP and now there is no problem except for setting up all the preferences etc again - I wish I knew what caused the problem, so that I could prevent it from happening again - the Maxtor is a healthy drive according to HD tune. PS. This is the 3rd boot failure I have had in 3 months.


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Response Number 8
Name: OtheHill
Date: October 1, 2008 at 14:33:45 Pacific
Reply:

Acronis and Maxblast are two different programs, no relationship between them other than an overlap in capabilities.

If your computer shuts down before the drive is finished writing you can get data corruption.

How much free space did you have on the drive. What size is the drive? Is it SATA or IDE?

Did you ever watch the start up screens as I suggested in #4?


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Response Number 9
Name: johnhp
Date: October 1, 2008 at 15:10:09 Pacific
Reply:

Acronis and Maxblast have similar Icons and if the one is Acronis is installed then you cant install Maxblast.

DM said 114.5 capacity and 105 free.
It is an IDE drive.

The only time I saw a start up screen relating to HD was when I pressed 'delete' to access Bios, but the info flashed across the screen and I was not able to make a note.
regards


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Response Number 10
Name: OtheHill
Date: October 1, 2008 at 15:20:31 Pacific
Reply:

The hard drive info isn't really important right now then but for future reference if you enter the BIOS screens (setup) there are a couple of settings that prevent the POST screens from showing. To have them show at start up, which I always do, disable fast boot and any Logos.


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